To be unsure about 3 weeks in rural Switzerland with a tiny baby?

[dalianialia]

I am due to give birth in late October. PIL have just been in touch to say that their friend's who live in Switzerland are going away for 3 weeks starting in mid December and all the way through to the new year and they have offered PIL their house for that time for a very reasonable price. They want me and DH to come with baby (who will be around 6 weeks old by then, possibly younger if I go overdue) for the entire 3 weeks. DH really is keen to go but I just worry it will be very stressful. It's going to be freezing and the house is well up in the mountains, we will have use of the friend's car which they are going to leave at the airport for us but it's a rough and long drive to get to the shop (they are going to leave the kitcken stocked for us but obviously they don't have baby things, so if we run out of nappies etc or baby needs something we are screwed) or a town, so it's not a holiday where we'll be out during the day etc. We have to drive from the airport to the house which is supposed to be a good few hours. I am going to have a tiny baby and will already be bloody knackered. My hormones are likely going to be all over the place and I'm just concerned by it all.

I feel ungrateful to turn it down but I'm just not sure I'll be able to cope with it, and it's going to be so cold. I have considered just going for the last week but DH thinks if we're going for one week we might as well go for the 3. Do you think it's a good idea?

I think Switzerland (where I go often to stay with friends who have a house in the Saane valley, and of which I am very fond) is irrelevant. Previous posters have addressed roads, temperature, healthcare etc. For me, the key is whether you would want to spend three weeks in close quarters with your PILS and a tiny new baby you’re just learning your way around?

BTW - Here's a quote from a thread which is going at the moment.

*My DP and I were invited to a wedding last year. His oldest friend from his first job. My DP was asked to be in the wedding party, and the wedding is next weekend in America (his fiance was born in the states but hasn’t lived their for some time).

In that time, we’ve had a baby who is now 6 weeks old. I assumed from the off my DP would back out of the wedding but he hasn’t. I’ve told him how anxious and upset I feel about being alone with the baby (he is really colicky and has such bad reflux) but he’s still adamant he’s going.

He’s spent hundreds on flights and accommodation as he’s taking his adult children from his previous relationship, who weren’t on the invite but he’s taking them in my place. I floated the idea of us taking the baby a while ago and he shot it down saying he thinks he is too little to fly (that’s when I assumed he wouldn’t go).

They’re going for a week and spending three days sight seeing as well.

I’ve been doing all the night shifts with the baby, I’m knackered, I’m anxious, I’m tearful, I’ve only just stopped bleeding after a very difficult birth*

Aren't the first lot of immunisations at eight weeks old? And what about getting a passport in time? Also risk of slipping on ice while holding baby.

FWIW I did travel with kids at that sort of age and it was fine. But I wanted to go and the circumstances were different. If you feel uneasy about it, that is reason enough to say no.

No and I'm one of the more adventurous when it comes to getting out and about with babies. A villa in the canaries close to local amenities where I can sit in the sun and read when baby naps - absolutely! But what will you actually do in the wilderness of a Swiss mountain? Not like you'll be skiing, going for strolls. I'd be concerned about poor wether making driving conditions difficult on unfamiliar roads too. You could still be uncomfortable after the birth too for such long transfer times.

Op I think your DH needs to educate himself on what the first few weeks typically looks like with a new baby. He sounds dangerously unprepared, even if just from a medical perspective (newborn health needs, your health, what happens post birth, how breastfeeding works).
Has he been to your antenatal checks, spoken to midwives about his role etc?!